MASTER CRACKSMAN.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19511, 13 February 1926, Page 7

MASTER CRACKSMAN.

A YOUNG ASHBURTON GANG. DEVOTEES OF BILL SYKES. [Per Press Association] ASHBURTON, Feb. 12. “This is an awful state of affairs, that in a small community like Ashburton offences of this kind have been committed almost with impunity, ” said Mr. Mosley, S.M., when hearing twenty-eight charges of damages, theft, and breaking and entering against four lads, aged from 14 to 10, who appeared at the Juvenile Court. The police stated that a day-book stolen from a store contained state nients of debts totalling over £lOO had not been recovered. The Magistrate reduced the charges to simple theft. The police said one boy refused to make a statement for some time, counsel saying that the ringleader of the gang, who was committed to the Borstal Institute last week, had used threats of violence if he divulged information. The probation officer said the mother of one boy had come across a letter from the ringleader, in which ho stated he was going to become a “master cracksman.’ ’ One boy elected to take a thrashing instead of “going away,” and the others were ordered eight strokes of the birch, placed on two years’ probation, and ordered to make restitution for goods not recovered. Another lad of 17, not connected with the others, appeared on charges principally of damage to and theft from gas meters. The case was adjourned to allow inquiries to be made as to apprenticing him outside Ashburton.